Cloud business software provider Workday Inc. beat analysts’ expectations as it reported solid first quarter financial results — just not solid enough to thrill investors.

The company reported a net loss of $64 million for the quarter, or 31 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $80.6 million, or 41 cents per share, in the same period a year ago. Workday, which sells financial and human capital management software as an online service, also reported earnings after certain costs such as stock compensation of 29 cents per share on revenues of $479.9 million, up 39 percent from a year ago. That compares with Wall Street’s expected earnings of 16 cents per share on $467.33 million in revenues.

Kelsey Mason, an analyst with Technology Business Research Inc., said Workday has been making good progress in slow-moving industries such as healthcare and retail, signing up new big name customers like U.K.-based healthcare provider Nuffield Health and the retailer Target Corp. The company also managed to sell more to existing customers such as Twenty-First Century Fox Inc., which signed a deal to use Workday’s financial management services in the last quarter.

“These Fortune 500 customer wins are proof points that Workday’s HCM portfolio is viable in the enterprise, resulting in reportedly high win rates against SAP and Oracle,” Mason said. “Workday also noted strong win rates in the mid-market against Oracle NetSuite and Ultimate Software.”

Not everyone was as impressed with Workday’s results, with one analyst telling the Investor’s Business Daily that some investors might not be satisfied despite the continued growth.

“With stock up 50 percent-plus year-to-date and much excitement around what the quarter was going to be (large deals), we expect some will view these results as disappointing,” said Walter Pritchard, a Citigroup analyst.

Indeed, after rising 1.5 percent before the report, Workday’s shares initially saw gains in early after-hours trading Thursday, but they settled back to fall about 1.2 percent. Update: On Friday morning, shares reversed course, rising about 1.5 percent.

The company also noted that subscription revenue hit $399.7 million, which is up 43 percent from a year ago.

Workday’s Chief Executive Officer Aneel Bhusri said in a statement that the quarter was a successful one that it puts it in good stead for the rest of the year. “Workday delivered a strong first quarter and achieved our highest net new ACV growth in nearly three years,” Bhusri said.

Bhusri also said on the conference call that the company was benefiting from competitors’ field sales leadership shifts. “Our large competitors have changed their leadership in the field on what seems a pretty regular basis,” he said. “Our win rate against both SAP and Oracle has been consistently high, and I think it will continue to remain consistently high.

He also said the company was gaining on companies such as NetSuite and Ultimate that serve smaller companies. “Our win rate is the highest it’s been against NetSuite in some time,” he said.

The company has yet to issue earnings guidance for the current quarter or fiscal year. However, it said it expects to see subscription revenues in the region of $420 million to $423 million in the second quarter, and between $1.705 billion and $1.72 billion for fiscal 2018.

Image: Workday/Facebook